Eichaeb schofielp



(No Model.)

R.- SGHDFIELD.

ART OF KNITTING STOCKINGS o. 288,186. Patented Nov. 6, 1883,

, RICHARD sonormnp,

on PARIS, ONTARIO, CANADA, ASSIGNOB TO I PENMAN, on SAME PLACE.

PATENT Fries.

JOHN

ART OF KN ITTING STOCKINGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 288,186, dated November6, 1883.

aapplication filed April 5, 1883. (Nomodel) To ctlZ whom, it mayconcern.-

Be it known thatl, Brennan SonorIELn, of the town of Paris, in thecounty of Brant, in the Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art of KnittingStockings,

"of which the following is a specification.

The object of the invention is to produce by a knitting-machine astocking having a plain foot and a ribbed leg without eXhibiting anyflaw at the connection between the plain and ribbed work; and itconsists, essentially, in the method hereinafter more fully described,and then pointed out in the claim.

It will be found that in attempting to add a ribbed leg to a plain footby operating an ordinary circular knitting machine in the usual manner aseries of holes will be formed around the stocking at the point wherethe rib joins the plain work; and it is to obviate this defect that myimprovement in the art of manufacturing machine-knitted stockings hasbeen made, which improvement I shall now proceed further to describewith the aid of the accompanying drawing, which shows an enlarged viewof a section of a stocking at the point where the ribbing joins theplain work.

In said drawing, A. Arepresent two of the dial-needles;B B, thecylinder-needles; O O, theholes usually leftwhen an attempt is made toadd a ribbed leg toa plain foot by operating an ordinarycircular-knitting machine in the usual manner, and D D D the loop bywhich such holes are closed when my method of operation is pursued.

My mode of operation is as -follows: Having knitted a plain foot onany'suitable machine, I transfer the said foot onto thecylintier-needles (represented by B) of an ordinary circular-knittingmachine, but which circularknitting machine must be provided with a dialhaving adj ustable ribbing-needles, (represented by A3 sot-hat the saidribbing-needles may easily be thrown in and out of work.

Havingtransferred the plain foot onto the cylinder-needles B, I turn themachine so as to knit a single round of stitches accomplished by thecylinder-needles alone. This singlerow'of stitches, however, is notessential, and may be omitted without changing the spirit of myinvention I then throwthe ribbing-needles A into action and cause thecombined cylinder and ribbing needles to knit the next round ofstitches, when I once more throw the ribbing-needles A out of action andcause the cylinder needles B to produce another single round ofstitches, when the ribbing-needles are again thrown into action andthe'rib-work proceeded with until the leg of the stocking has beencompleted.

It will of course be understood that more than a single round ofstitches by the cylinder-needles alone when they first enter the plainwork might be made without affecting the principle of my invention; butin orderto make a perfect job it is not advisable to make more than asingle round of stitches with thecylinder-needlesaloncbetweenthepointwhere the ribbing-needles are firstthrown into action and the point where they are thrown into action forthe purpose of continuing the rib-work; nor can more than one round ofstitches with the combined needles be made when the ribbing-needles arefirst thrown into the work, as in such a case holes, as shown at G, willappear round the stocking, made by the action of the ribbing-needleswhen they first take hold of the stitches, these holes in my processbeing closed by the loops D, formed by the cylinder-needles, as beforestated, between the point where the ribbing-needles are first broughtinto action and the point where they are thrown into action for thepurpose bf continuing the ribbed work.

In conclusion, I should mention that in the event of the combined totalof the ribbing and cylinder needles being equal to the number of vstitches inthe foot at the point where the joint is made, a perfectconnection would of course be formed; but the leg thus made would be toonarrow and the stocking would therefore not be properly shaped. Myinvention does not relate to the manufacture of an imperfect stocking,but solely to an improvement in the art of producing a perfect stockinghaving a plain foot and a ribbed leg, and in which a greater number ofstitches are made around the leg than around the foot, at the pointwhere the joint is formed.

What I claim as my invention is- The improvement in the art of knittingstockings which consists in, first knitting a plain foot, thentransferring said foot to the inder need les alone, then bringingthe'dialneedles into operation again, and completing 1o 7 the knittingof the stocking on both cylinder and dia1 needles, substantially asdescribed.

RICHARD SOHOFIELD.

Witnesses:

Al O. 'HOLSER,

W. WALTON.

